February 25, 1989|By PETER LEYDEN and DAVID BANK, Special to the Sun-Sentinel

TOKYO -- As Emperor Hirohito`s funeral procession wound through the streets on Friday, a small group of protesters conducted their own procession with a banner stating: ``We refuse to admire the emperor.``

That admonition was about the fiercest to be flung in a nation in which protest as well as grief exhibited the characteristic Japanese self-restraint.

An estimated 4,000 people in this city of 12 million people staged 11 anti-emperor demonstrations to counter what was being called the largest state funeral in recorded history.

``I`m a little disappointed with the turnout,`` said Yutaka Tagawa, an organizer of a protest at the prestigious Tokyo University and the president of the liberal arts student body.

Thirty-three students out of the 7,000-member student body turned up at the campus cafeteria to listen to speakers discuss to what extent Hirohito had responsibility for World War II.

The Japanese students conducted a long, civil discussion at about the same time that students in South Korea were burning Japanese Imperial flags and clashing with police in an attempt to march to the Japanese Embassy.

``Most Japanese students are more interested in tennis, or the movies or fashion,`` Tagawa said.

The Japanese media has dubbed the young generation that has grown up in comfort and affluence as the ``new breed.`` But neither they nor their elders seemed overly passionate on the day of the funeral.

About 560,000 people braved the cold rain and lined the route of the funeral procession as it wound from the Imperial palace in central Tokyo to the Shinjuku Gyoen Garden where the funeral ceremony was held.

The rain failed to deter nearly 90 people who had conducted an all-night vigil at the gate to the palace to ensure that they had the best view on Friday morning.

Among the mourners along the route were several groups of Japanese gangsters who turned out with shaved heads and meticulous black suits and overcoats. They caused no trouble.

Two young men in black coats bolted from the crowd into the path of the procession and were quickly subdued by some of the 32,000 police providing security.

Police suspect that the two men were members of the Middle Core Faction, a radical leftist group that vowed to disrupt the funeral.

Another man who threw a metal object in the path of the funeral was also arrested.

The most serious disruption of the funeral procession was an explosion along the expressway to the Musashi Imperial Mausoleum, where the 87-year-old emperor was buried on Friday evening.

The explosion caused a minor landslide on the expressway enbankment but the dirt that slid to the pavement was cleaned up long before the procession passed.

The funeral was split into two parts, the traditional Shinto religion ceremony and the official state funeral.

Almost all Japan Socialist Party members of the Diet, or national assembly, refused to attend the religious ceremony on the grounds that it violated the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.

The U.S.-style constitution was imposed by U.S. occupation forces after World War II. The emperor was given the status of a purely symbolic secular head of state.

About 30 percent of the Diet members of the Socialist Party, the largest opposition party, boycotted the ceremony as did all Communist Party Diet members.

Many of the protests around the city objected to the government sponsoring the Shinto ceremony and some objected to a government amnesty commemorating the funeral.

The government pardoned 30,000 people convicted of minor criminal offenses and restored the civil rights of 11 million others.

Such amnesties are traditionally made to commemorate historical events.